Sentiment
by Phoenix Firefly
Summary: Remus is sick of the Wizarding world treating him like dirt, so he finds work in the Muggle World. When he meets a girl and finds out her secret they will do anything to stay togther, even when their families want them apart...
1. the decision

Sentiment  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them; I don't know anyone who does. Oh, JK does, but I don't know her!   
  
A/N: This is set at the time of Harry's 5th year at Hogwarts. I really hope that you enjoy this story and please be kind and review! I thrive on them! Thank you  
  
  
  
Remus Lupin had been moved from job to job without so much as a thank you for putting in all of the hard work. That was his way to try and prove himself to the Wizarding world, to show them that he was equally as talented, may be even more then the others and that being a Werewolf meant nothing otherwise.  
  
Unfortunately it didn't work, as he discovered, moving his possessions out of his small office in the Merlin's department store. He had been promoted on numerous occasions during the year he had worked there, the first stable job he had had after his year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was presented the job as store manager but on a night out he had stupidly drank too much mead and going against all rules allowed himself to speak, letting fly all of his secrets that he kept so close to heart. He didn't tell anyone anymore, not unless he had their absolute trust.   
  
He stood on the curb of a busy London street. Where was he going to go? Which degrading job would he have to fulfil this time? How many meads' will spill the secret that shaped his life? It was seven. How could he have got to seven? Why hadn't someone stopped him, like he stopped his employees? Why doesn't anyone treat him with dignity when he treats everyone with the utmost civility?  
  
He wandered slowly up the street, knowing that he would soon have an over-due rent bill to pay, that he would soon be as broke as he was prior to his job. He stopped in front of The Leaky Cauldron and entered.  
  
It was the same hazy atmosphere that he had become accustomed to. The same ramble and cackle of voices across the room that made his self-pity seem to lessen. Maybe it was the fact that he missed other wizard interaction so much that he was quite content to listen to the endless chatter.  
  
He made his way over to the bar and sat down, throwing his case down by his feet, a sigh escaping his lips.  
  
" Bad day at work then Remus?" asked Tom standing up pulling a glass from beneath the counter, filled it with Butterbeer then passed it over to an old wizard who handed over three sickles.  
  
" What work? I'm out of a job again," was his melancholy reply.  
  
" Oh! What are you doing?" Tom asked good-heartedly, " eating the bosses wives?" he added with a chortle.   
  
Remus smiled wearily, laughing on the inside. He wished that he could just say, ' Well, yeah, now that you mention it' but he knew he couldn't. He hadn't actually bitten anyone, ever. He had bought ingredients to concoct the wolfbane potion that Severus had been making for him prior to his leaving Hogwarts.  
  
" No," he replied, " I don't know what their problem is with me. I'm just as hard working as the next wizard. Poorer, unkempt and old, but other then that –" he trailed off looking down at his appearance.   
  
" Nah! No way! I'd hire you if I could, but there isn't enough money in it. Best I run the bar by myself. If you get what I mean –"   
  
" It's OK, Tom. I fully understand. But I need to get out of this place, find somewhere better to go looking for a job."  
  
" What? Like out of the country?" Tom asked bewildered. " And have no-one to talk to in the evenings?"  
  
Remus laughed. " Oh no! I was thinking of – oh you would think that I was mad!"  
  
" Try me Remus!" he said beaming, " I've seen a few coo-coo's in my time, and I don't think you would fit in with them!"   
  
Remus smiled and looking down as he spoke, " I'm thinking of trying to find work in the Muggle World."  
  
  
A/N: So? what do you think? PLease review! Thanks, Phoenix firefly xxxooo 


	2. Good Byes

Sentiment  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the, i don't know anyone who does. Jk does, but i don't know her.  
  
AN: Thank you to: Ashleigh, Mackenzie and Nycgrl for being my fist reviewers! It really means a lot to me, seriously. Thanks so much!  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
He looked up when he hear no answer. Tom's mouth had dropped and was staring.  
" What are you going to do there? No magic! How will you live?"  
  
" I'll get along," he said reassuringly. " I won't need a degree for anything. I can get a teaching job and a weekend job. I'll move out of London, maybe get a small house in the country. It'll be alright," then on seeing his face added quickly, " and I'll come and have and see you every evening."  
  
" You had bloody better," he said with a twinkle in his eye. Remus stood up and saying his goodbye's left the tavern and walked three blocks up the street to a shabby lot of apartments.  
  
He grabbed a fistful of Floo Powder and walked into the flames.   
  
" Remus Lupin," he said and disappeared.  
  
He stepped out of his own grungy chimney and placed his brief case on the small circular table and went over to greet his barn owl, Shakespeare. He stroked its chest as he picked up three letters.  
  
One was from Sirius saying that all was well and that he had crashed at some wizard's house pretending to be a stray dog and going out at night and transforming. He seemed quite pleased with him self.  
  
The other two were from Merlin's. Enclosed in the thinner one was his woeful pay-checkque of 80 galloens. He didn't bother to read the other.   
  
" Probably hate letters from the staff," he mumbled as he threw it into the flames and watched as it squealed and squeaked as it turned into ashes.   
  
He walked into his tiny kitchen and opened the fridge. It looked like this was going to be his last good meal for a while, he thought heating up last nights left overs of Lasagne.  
  
He took a seat on the couch and called Shakespeare over and told him to go and get a Muggle newspaper. It flew of out the window and Remus didn't see him until morning because he crashed into bed early, trying to forget the day that had been.   
  
AN: Thanks for reading! 


	3. Librarian?

Sentiment  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, i don't know anyone who does. JK does, but i don't know her.  
  
Enjoy! LOL...  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Remus awoke late in the morning. It was 9:30 and Shakespeare had been nipping his ear for the last twenty minutes and was now staring at it harder.  
  
" Aright, alright," he mumbled rising from the bed all groggy.   
  
He made his way to the kitchen and made himself a strong cup of coffee and sat down, lifting up the paper that his faithful owl had most likely bought the night before.  
  
He smiled at the still picture plastered on the front of the paper.  
" They are still looking for you my friend," he said waving his hand over a picture of a very unkempt man with matted hair down to his elbows. " You defiantly look different now."  
  
He opened it, amused by everything that he saw. There were pictures of people dressed in some kind of uniform, others in jackets and trousers. He came to a page marked as, " Classifieds".   
  
That morning (what was left of it) he spent most of his time scanning the pages looking for a job that required not a lot of Muggle intelligence. Even though he had done Muggle Studies as a subject at Hogwarts and reading and enjoying a lot of their literature (especially Shakespeare, thus the name of his owl) he didn't want to look like an innocent hobbit with dinner plate sized eyes every time he was presented with something he did not know.  
  
He had circled a job that not only appealed to him but seemed to pay well also. He didn't need to know a lot about the technologies of Muggles and he was dealing with things that he was well acquainted with. All he needed was to get his hands on a telephone…  
  
He was going to be a librarian.  
  
AN: Thanks for reading! 


	4. The Phone call

Disclaimer: I don't own them; i dont know anyone that does. Oh, JK does, but i don't know her!  
  
A/N: Please read and review! I thrive on them!  
  
The Phone call  
  
  
Chapter 4.   
  
" Um… yes hello, I would like to speak to a Mr. Laurance Mayfield… yes, it's about the job advertised in the paper… good, yes that's fine, tomorrow morning will be fine. Uh… Remus Lupin. Great, thank you very much… yes, see you then – OK, bye-bye."  
  
Remus had sent an owl to Harry over lunch asking him to explain how to use a telephone and Harry had replied almost straight away and with notes from Hermione he had set off into Muggle London to find a telephone booth. He had followed the instructions that were written down for him and the call had gone considerably well.   
  
He had a good feeling about this interview and was eager for the next morning to come.  
  
He returned to his little hovel and sat himself down with a stack of Muggle literature and tore through the pages, devouring each word and embracing the long culture of their history.   
  
He wrote to Hermione again that day and asked her to send him a list of popular Muggle books for children and teenagers. She replied with quite an extensive range listing references from John Marsden to Tamora Pierce. He packed the list into his brief case and in saying goodnight to Shakespeare headed off to bed. 


	5. Mr Mayfield

Disclaimer: I don't own them; i don't know anyone that does. Oh, JK does, but i don't know her!  
  
AN: please read and review! it makes me happy!  
  
Chapter 5.   
  
Remus awoke early the next morning out of nerves and made himself a cup of coffee and a couple of slices of toast.  
  
Shakespeare arrived at the window with two letters and as usual Remus ambled over and took hold of the letters.  
  
One, he found was from Sirius again. He had been spotted during the night and had to flee the area. He said that they might not meet again for a few moths, until things have settled down again.   
  
The other was from Hermione, Harry and Ron, wishing him all of the best for the interview and Ron complaining about the DADA teacher and Snape again. It wasn't at all unusual for Ron to complain of the potions master, but he enjoyed the long letter anyway. It almost made him feel liked to some degree.  
  
It was finally time for Remus to head down to the little library just outside of London in Kingston. He disapperated out of his apartment and come out just behind a tree outside of the little dwelling of books.  
  
He straightened his Muggle clothes that he had bought the previous evening, he could hardly turn up in his robes.   
  
He stepped inside and instantly the smell of new books, old books and humanity rushed up his nostrils and took over his senses. He had to pull him self together before he approached the information desk.   
  
He finally finished taking in everything around him and stepped up to the desk where an old man (ancient looking, so he wondered if he had discovered for him self the elixir of life) was looking prudent, exactly how he guessed they should look. He stepped forward and didn't even get a word in before the ancient man started talking.  
  
" Remus Lupin?" he asked. Remus nodded and he continued, " I am Matthew Jinks the current librarian whose job, if you sufficiently pass the interview, will take over. Mr. Laurance Mayfield is in his office just in there," he said, pointing to a small door on a long wall covered from top to bottom with books of every sort.   
  
Remus knocked on the door and a tall gangly man who had an amount of thick black curls on top of his head answered it. He wasn't old, around the same age as Remus him self and had a warm smile. He spoke softly and welcomed him inside.  
  
It was a small and pokey office and was kept very neatly with books in rows along the back wall. There was a desk in the middle back with a comfortable armchair behind it and two small, well cushioned however, seats residing in front it. Laurance offered Remus a seat and walked to the other side placing himself opposite Remus in the comfortable chair.  
  
" Remus Lupin," he began, " That is quite an odd name. Your first was one of the twins that founded Rome, yes… Romulas and Remus if my memory serves me correctly. And your last name has the meaning of wolf in Latin. Quite a strange combination for Romulas and Remus were both raised by wolves, don't you agree?"  
  
Remus just sat and stared in shock. He hadn't the fuzziest what this man before him was talking about but nodded all he same and with smiling said, " Yes, I did find I peculiar."   
  
Laurance smile again. " Have you had any other experience dealing with books and history?"  
  
Remus continued to explain that he had worked in a school for a while and in a bookstore.   
  
Sure, he didn't go into the details, that he was a wizard and taught Defence against the dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and worked in the department store called Merlin's for a year where they sold not only wizarding books but robes of splendour for every occasion and self stocking pantries, but he wasn't lying either.  
  
Laurance was very interested in which were his favourite authors (Muggle of course). Remus remembered Shakespeare and delved into his works and led on to discuss the Bronte sisters and Charles Dickens.  
  
" And what would you recommend if a child asked you for a reference?"  
  
Remus pondered this. Then he remembered Hermione's list.   
  
" Foe children under the age of twelve CS. Lewis is great for a child to expand their imagination; the 'just' book's by Andy Gryffis are quite popular."  
  
" And teenage fiction?"  
  
" John Marsden writes many a book for the teenagers, most notably the Tomorrow when the War Began series. Meg Cabot writes idealistic situations that girls may endeavour to read. Boys, I believe will find their fancy with historical fiction, taking them back to the great wars and medieval England."  
  
Laurance stood up with a grin, Remus following suit. They shook hands and Laurance said something that surprised Remus.  
  
" I don't usually make a habit of this but I think that you are exactly what I am looking for."  
  
Remus beamed. 


	6. Coming Home

Disclaimer: I dont own them; i dont know anyone that does.Oh, JK does, but i dont know her.  
  
Enjoy! R/R!!!!!  
Phoenix  
  
*~*~*~  
  
Remus had returned home that night smiling from ear to ear. When he got home and owled the three young Gryffindor's the good news. He remembered what Tom has said to him, ' Come and visit in the evenings.' Well, it wasn't really the evening, more around lunch but he decided to make a visit all the same.  
  
He changed his Muggle clothes back to his Wizard robes and headed down the chimney on to the busy London street and went inside the Leaky Cauldron.  
  
It was as busy as ever, especially now that it was the lunchtime peak. He manoeuvred his way over to the counter and took his usual place beside the register. Tom wasn't behind the bar at the time he walked in, so he picked up a menu and poured over the contents, trying to decide what he would have to eat on the happy day. Fried salamander tails looked good but he didn't have much money on him, so he had to settle for Shepard's pie.  
  
Tom walked in through the back door and spotted Remus instantly.   
" Well, well, well, if it isn't the Muggle boy come to visit his old wizard friend," Tom said good-heartedly.  
" Hello Tom," Remus answered, leaning over to shake hands with him. " I have just had the most wonderful interview," he gushed.   
" Really? What for? You going to teach those little Muggle children how to conjure up a patronus like you did for little Harry Potter?" he said with a laugh.   
  
" Oh no Tom, I'm going to be a Muggle librarian."  
  
" And teach all those useless books on non magic history and fiction tales of witches and wizards, and have those little blighters think that a witch has green messy hair and a big long nose with warts all over it?" He leaned closer to Remus, " And you would have them all believe that?"  
  
Remus moved back and laughed heartily. " Oh Tom! They don't think that we are real! They might for a little while, maybe a year or so but it wares off. We are just the imaginary to them. The magic is all different!"  
  
Tom suppressed a smile. " So what will it be my friend?"  
" Shepard's pie, Tom," he replied with a grin, " I'm not being paid yet!"  
  
**  
Remus retired late that night for he had spent so long talking to Tom he had lost track of the time. He stumbled out of weariness into his old little home, fed Shakespeare and got into bed.   
  
He woke the next morning early, for he had many dilemmas on hand. The fist one being, what was he going to ware? The second being, what is Shakespeare delivers mail while he was at work? The third one being, what would happen if he got caught up in the legend of witches and wizards and ended up showing them magic?  
  
Well, the third one was simple. The ministry would be there straight away of course. But the thing that troubled him the most was that if he did something like thus, he would not be trusted in the Muggle world either, even though the Muggles would be non the wiser.   
  
He opened his wardrobe doors and pulled out the alternative pair of trousers, shirt and polo vest. He made himself the usual piece of toast and cup of tea as Shakespeare brought in the Daily Prophet and Muggle paper.   
  
He didn't pick up the Daily Prophet first but picked up the Muggle one and opened to a section labelled Real Estate. He was looking at all of the houses around the area of the Kingston where the Library was located.  
  
There were a few nice houses that were completely out of his price range. He figured that e would only get around 2,000 galleons for this place and that was not a lot of Wizard money, therefore it would equal a lot less Muggle. He put a circle around a small house five kilometres from the Library o remind himself to ring the agents to organise a viewing of the house. They were finally going to get out of their little hole in the city and into a nice little country house with room for Shakespeare to fly.  
  
A/N: what do you think? 


	7. A glint

Remus laid the paper down and taking one last look in the mirror that commented on his Muggleness disapperated from the house and outside the library behind the tree again. He had his brief case in one hand and with the other he straightened out his clothes and walked up to the door. He knocked and Laurance who welcomed Remus and ushered him inside opened it.  
  
" This will be your office, Remus," he said, leading him to a door around the corner from the one he had been in the other day. It was around the same size as Laurance's with a small desk and comfortable chair, however, there were no filing cabinets but two waist height shelves that were packed with books. There was a shelf behind the desk where he could put his own possessions.   
  
" The library opens at nine o'clock and closes at seven o'clock. Here are two things that you will need," he said handing Remus two small metal objects.  
  
One of them was a key to the front and back door to the library and the other was a little pin with the name, Remus Lupin, engraved in gold on it.   
  
" Thank you so very much," Remus said almost in a whisper. " You don't know how much this means to me."   
  
Laurance smiled. " Wear the pin at all times so people know who you are by name. It is always a little more intimate that way. I would usually get my staff to call the members by their first name. We have quite a few regulars come here, some almost every day. We have quite a few how seem to eat them for they are read so repetitively and others who constantly re-borrow the same book over. Now you can put your bag down and I'll show you how the borrowing system works…" he said walking out of the room with Remus following behind.   
  
Remus was shown how to use a computer in a very crash course and was constantly asking questions. Laurance picked up on this and pointed it out.  
" Haven't you ever used a computer before?" he asked.  
" No, not really. I have never been well-acquainted with them," he answered truthfully.   
" But you say you worked in a department store, surly they used them there?"  
" Yes, but I was never with them I was always managing and running around."  
" Oh… right."  
  
It was nearing 9 o'clock and the library doors were soon to be opened to the public. Remus was jazzed; he had never had this kind of feeling before… a kind of acceptance, not even before what had happened in Merlin's. He walked past a mirror and was getting ready for it to make some snide comment about his appearance (it's the manufacturers who do it) but then soon realised that everything here was muggle, right down to the shortest childrens book on witches and wizards.   
  
It took about half an hour for a decent amount of people coming in a browsing the stands. It wasn't until around eleven thirty that something caught his eye…  
  
A/N: R/R? please? i would like to know what you think! 


	8. Alleri

Disclaimer: I don't own them; I don't know anyone who does. Oh, JK does, but I don't know her!   
Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Alleri  
  
She walked into the room, a bag hanging by her side. She had dead straight strawberry-blonde hair that was layered. She was as tall as she was and thin. She wore a pair of hipster Muggle jeans and a white singlet top. She walked over to the history books and on picking a book off the shelf slumped down on a comfy armchair.   
  
Remus was taken aback by her presence. Laurance who approached him noticed his staring.  
  
" That's Alleri. She comes here everyday- I don't know why. Doesn't have a job, I offered her one here but she says that she is doing all right. Her parents are very rich, live in London. No one sees them – or no one has seen them. Mysterious."  
  
" Yeah, strange," Remus muttered, busying himself with his work again.   
  
Through out the day he couldn't keep his eyes off her. She got up every second hour to have a stretch or maybe get a new book every so often, but nothing other then that. She didn't have lunch and by this time Remus was getting very curious indeed. He wanted to go up and talk to her but didn't have the guts. And besides, what would he say? 'Oh, I noticed you weren't eating lunch, do you want to share mine?' He sniggered to himself. Yeah a pretty thing like her would want to share iced pumpkin juice and chicken drumsticks.  
  
He plucked up the courage and wandered over to her.   
" Hello, my name is Remus Lupin, I've noticed that you were here all day and—"  
" I've noticed that you're a wizard," she replied, not looking up from her book.  
A/N: What do you think? Intriguing? Let me know plz! 


	9. You're a what?

Disclaimer: I don't own them; I don't know anyone who does. Oh, JK does, but I don't know her!  
Chapter 9  
  
You're a What?  
  
*  
  
" What?" he asked quickly in a whisper.  
  
She looked up lazily and lowered her book. It was on the Middle Ages. " Come off it," she said. "I know a wizard when I see one. Your wand isn't that inconspicuous. I can see it now," she said pointing a shelf under the main desk. " And besides, you had enough difficulty with the computer usage, also with remembering what it was."  
  
Remus stood shocked. How on Earth did she know all this and put it all together if she had done no more then read since her arrival. He looked her up and down. Everything about her screamed Muggle, he just didn't understand.  
  
" How did you know?" he asked quietly, sitting him down beside her. " Are you a Witch?"  
  
She laughed. " Do I look like a Witch to you?" she asked.   
" Well, I wasn't sure—"  
" Believe me, if I was a witch I wouldn't be spending all of my day in here. I'd be out and about, maybe working for the Ministry. I like the sounds of charms…"  
" If your not a Witch then how do you know all of this?"  
  
She squirmed in her seat like a worm would wriggle into the earth. " My Parents are wizards," she said at last, looking back down at the English history.  
  
Remus looked at her again, putting two and two together. He frowned and looked back at her, lowering the book back onto her lap.   
  
" You're a Squib?"  
  
" Technically speaking, yes," she said slowly. " My parents both went to Hogwarts and they were disappointed when I didn't get my acceptance letter. My sister went to Hogwarts though. She's older then me by five years. She was in Hufflepuff, which is probably worse then being a Squib, don't you agree?"  
  
Remus had to laugh at that. The Wizarding community always considered Hufflepuff's duffers just as Slytherins were always considered bad.  
  
" I went to Hogwarts—"  
" You weren't in Hufflepuff, were you?"  
" No. Gryffindor," he answered with a smile. " 1974-1980."  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him. " That's the same year as my sister. Did you know Severus Snape? He's a teacher there now. He used to Hex all the Hufflepuffs and annoy her in particular. She hated him so much."  
  
Remus was going to say her nearly got Snape killed when they were in school and they loved to use him as a walking practical joke. He decided not to, for she would get intrigued.   
" I guess you knew James Potter then?" she asked.  
" My very best friend," he said sadly. " And Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew."  
" You must hate Black so much for what he did to the Potters, betraying them and all," she said and looked down at her book.  
  
" Actually, it w—"  
" Pardon," she asked glancing back up at him. " What were you going to say?"  
" Nothing. I had best get back to work, I still need to work out this whole tompcuter thing."  
" Computer."  
" Yeah, that thing," he said and walked away.  
A/N: Its nice to review once u read! Thank you for getting this far... no one usually reads this much!  
Thanks, Phoenix 


End file.
